Air
pollution composed of the complex interactions among particular
matter, chemicals, and pathogens is an emerging and global environmental
issue that closely correlates with a variety of diseases and adverse
health effects, especially increasing incidences of neurodegenerative
diseases. However, as one of the prevalent health outcomes of air
pollution, chemosensory dysfunction has not attracted enough concern
until recently. During the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple scientific
studies emphasized the plausibly essential roles of the chemosensory
system in the airborne transmission airway of viruses into the human
body, which can also be utilized by pollutants. In this Review, in
addition to summarizing current progress regarding the contributions
of traditional air pollutants to chemosensory dysfunction, we highlight
the roles of emerging contaminants. We not only sum up clarified mechanisms,
such as inflammation and apoptosis but also discuss some not yet completely
identified mechanisms, e.g., disruption of olfactory signal transduction.
Although the existing evidence is not overwhelming, the chemosensory
system is expected to be a useful indicator in neurotoxicology and
neural diseases based on accumulating studies that continually excavate
the deep link between chemosensory dysfunction and neurodegenerative
diseases. Finally, we argue the importance of studies concerning chemosensory
dysfunction in understanding the health effects of air pollution and
provide comments for some future directions of relevant research.